(a) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a photosensor and, more particularly, to a display device including a photosensor.
(b) Disclosure of Related Art
Examples of flat panel displays include a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting display (OLED), and a plasma display panel (PDP). The LCD devices are the most widely used flat panel display, which include two panels and a liquid crystal layer having dielectric anisotropy disposed between the two panels. In an LCD device, an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal layer and the electric field is controlled to adjust transmittance of light passing through the liquid crystal layer, thereby displaying images.
Since the LCD devices are not a self-emissive display device, they include a backlight unit for supplying light to the two panels. However, the backlight unit consumes a significant amount of power, and thus it is suggested that a photosensor be employed to control the backlight unit. The photosensor is particularly suited for use in portable devices such as mobile phones and notebook computers.
Additionally, the LCD usually includes thin film transistors (TFTs) containing amorphous silicon and an amorphous silicon TFT generates photocurrent when exposed to light. Accordingly, the amorphous silicon TFT can be used as a photosensor since the photocurrent generated by the amorphous silicon TFT is responsive to an amount of light to which the amorphous silicon TFT is exposed.
However, for mass-production of the LCD and other display devices employing photosensors, the photocurrents generated by TFTs have wide ranges due to manufacturing process variations. In addition, heat emitted by the backlight unit may change characteristics of the TFTs and thereby change the photocurrents. Additionally, long-term driving of the LCD and other display devices may change the characteristics of the TFTs to vary the photocurrent.
In such cases, a sensitivity variation of the photosensor is generated and thus an additional process for removing the sensitivity variation is required. As a result, reliability of the photosensor is decreased and cost is increased.